


another dog in the dirt

by ghostwriterofthemachine



Series: the moon is our constant [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Multi, Pack Dynamics, Past Abuse, Past Violence, Protectiveness, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 08:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5368961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostwriterofthemachine/pseuds/ghostwriterofthemachine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their big problem is 'what do we do next.' The answer should be right in front of them, but past experiences can eclipse the obvious. </p>
<p>(Or: Matt worries about Jeremy, Jeremy worries about everything, Gavin Free knows nothing about Star Wars, and Geoff's entire pack decides to keep the strays.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	another dog in the dirt

**Author's Note:**

> Guys. I am so sorry this took me so long to put out. 
> 
> In my defense, life got really life-y (I spent most of the summer working and getting ready for my first semester of college and the past few months IN my first semester of college and stuff), I hit a huge block with this story, and then I came back to it, discovered that I hated it, the scrapped/completely reworked and Frankensteined it into what it is today. And there are parts of it I'm still not completely happy with. 
> 
> But here it is anyway. The feedback for the first story was overwhelming, I can't thank you guys enough. I hope this story is at least slightly worth the weight.

Jeremy spends his childhood loving his Beta status. 

The pack he grows up in is a familial one. His mom is the Alpha and head of it. He has a few other Alpha packmates, cousins and aunts and uncles that he adores, but he never finds himself envying them once. He feels the same way towards his Omega packmates, with their unique kind of empathy and calming presents. He loves them all, respects them, understands the importance of both, but doesn’t get some his fellow Beta’s longing to be elevated to an Alpha. 

Being in charge isn’t something he particularly enjoys, let alone craves. He isn’t passive or brainless, he will argue for what he thinks is right and he knows he will not do anything that goes against his morals, even if he’s ordered to, but the thought of being the one calling the shots sits badly in his stomach. He likes knowing what to do. Doing something quickly and correctly the first time is one of the best feelings a 12-year-old Jeremy can think of. 

He goes to him mom once, and only once, about the fact that he’s so content with his lot in life. Like, maybe he’s a freak or he’s wrong because the power an Alpha has doesn’t appeal to him, or because the _specialness_ of Omegas doesn’t appeal to him, and he can’t think of anything better than being just who he is right now. His mother laughs at him, pulls him into a tight, safe hug, and says that he’s the best kind of Beta and to never, never change that. And Jeremy never does. 

The only time he ever wants to is years in the future, curled up with Matt on the tiny, hard bed in the cold room they’re allowed, both aching with the hurts of the day. There, Jeremy’s hand finds the bite mark forced on his friend, identical to the one forced on him in a different spot, which brands them as part of this pack that they hate. That makes them feel like there is a constant pressure on their skin just waiting to break them open and drain them dry. 

There, and only there, Jeremy wishes he’s an Alpha, so he can sink his teeth into the mark, get rid of the presence of this toxic Alpha and toxic pack and free them both so they can run away and be safe. 

(.)

“So, do we have a plan or what?” 

It takes a day and a half after arriving at Geoff’s packs stronghold for Matt to have enough strength to push himself up and swing his legs off the bed, but now he does just that. Across the room, Jeremy leans against the door frame and crosses his arms. 

“You get yourself better,” says Jeremy. 

“Okay, fine. Done, almost.” Matt waves his hand vaguely over his body. “Look at us, making progress for once. But where to next?”

Jeremy chews his lip. “Go up North and cross the border? Go overseas?” he offers, but before he’s even finished speaking Matt is shaking his head. 

“Canadian packs want nothing to do with anyone who’s even spoken to Militants, let alone been a part of one,” he says, ticking off on his fingers. “There are Hunters in Europe, and that’s a big risk. Australia-”

“Australia would be best.”

“Australia is expensive,” Matt finishes. “Not to mention, I don’t have a passport. Or ID so I can go and get a passport.” 

“Oh, fuck,” Jeremy’s eyes widened. “Did I not grab those before we left? I thought I had gotten everything, I’m so-“

“No, you didn’t forget them. They just weren’t there.” Matt smiled without humor. “You think Victor would let me keep something like that? He burned everything.”

Jeremy wilts. “Right. Of course he did. Fucking bastard.” He rubs his hands over his upper arms. He can feel his own heart rate spike. 

Matt shrugs and runs his fingers through his hair. “There must be other options. Maybe-“ he breaks off, looks at Jeremy, frowns. “Are you okay, man?” 

“What?” he shakes himself, more wolf than man for a brief second. “Yeah, I’m fine.” 

Matt looks disbelieving. “What’s wrong?”

“Look, nothing’s wrong, don’t worry-“

“Jerem, don’t fucking patronize me. Please.” Matt forces eye contact. “What’s up?” 

Jeremy opens his mouth, shuts it again. “It’s just. I guess I forgot?” He lets his gaze drop to the floor. “How good an Alpha can be. I forgot. And it kinda snuck up on me, how much I missed-” he shudders and stops talking. It’s not really a bad kind of shudder. 

Matt’s eyes soften. He reaches out, makes exaggerated grabby hands. “C’mere, asshole.” 

Jeremy crosses the small space and slumps onto the bed next to him. They lean into each other, the action as familiar as breath, each of them taking some of the other’s weight. Matt runs a hand over his friend’s back, skims his fingers down his flank. Jeremy melts farther into him.

Jeremy’s spent an unbelievably long time trying to be an Alpha, or at least Alpha enough to pull the two of them away from Victor. Matt can tell it’s wearing him down. He’s been running himself ragged and fighting his instincts for a long time. He’s exhausted. That’s partially Matt’s own fault, but he’s pulled out of that train of thought when Jeremy speaks again. 

“Geoff, he,” he begins slowly, “When we first got here, he said- He said we could stay as long as we wanted.”

Matt stiffens like someone has just stuck him with a pin. “Jeremy. Jerem, we just got away from a pack, fuck, are you sure you even want to consider joining another so soon? After everything that’s happened? Why can’t we-“

“Matt,” Jeremy interrupts softly, “Matt, you’ve never been a part of a good pack. Not a really good one.” Matt doesn’t deny this. “You don’t know- It can be so awesome. It can be the best thing ever.”

Matt doesn’t answer. Another silence falls. 

Finally, Matt breaths out a half sigh. He turns his head and rests his nose in Jeremy’s hair, scenting him to comfort and reassure them both. “We can look at it as an option, if it comes to that.” he says. “If you think it’s the right choice. You know I trust you.”

Jeremy makes a noise that’s half a laugh and half a wince, and let’s his eyes fall shut. He slumps to the side, and Matt takes more of his weight. “It might not eve be an option. It’s not like they’ve actually asked us to stay at all.”

(.)

Matt has never been what most would consider a ‘traditional’ Omega. He’s too sharp, too mean, too sarcastic, and he knows that. He doesn’t comfort by simpering and cuddling and physical touch, like many say good Omega’s should. He can pacify, very well, but maybe Jeremy said it best when he stated that it was less like Matt calms people down, and more like he _projects_ his apathy onto them. 

Later in his life, this becomes a good thing, because there are no traditional Omegas in Geoff’s pack (The closest is probably Ray, if any of them, but even he lacks the easy openness an Omega ‘should’ have), but to say it didn’t cause him grief in life would be an outright lie. 

Matt, unlike Jeremy, didn’t grow up in a familial pack. He’s a bitten wolf, though one bitten pretty young, and he’s taken in by the pack in his town. Maybe that’s the root of it- no 12-year-old wants to leave his parents to go live with strangers, even though, as an Omega from the second he’s turned, he should crave pack more than anything. So he spends weekdays with his parents, and weekends with the pack, and runs full moons in the South Carolina humidity, and everything’s pretty okay for awhile. 

Until Victor’s pack comes slamming into the area the summer before Matt’s set to head off to college to become an architect. 

(It still hurt, though, that they give him up so easily. Wrap him up like a gift and ship him to a pack that will hurt him every day he is there, in order to save themselves the trouble of fighting. It hurts that Pack would do that, and a part of Matt always wonders if they would have fought for him more, if he had been more of what an Omega should be.)

He spends three months alone in Victor’s pack with the oily feeling of Victor’s claiming bite on his soul and the constant taunting, until he’s dragged out of his bed one night by one of Victor’s more favored Betas. His moment of blind panic is cut short when the guy jerks him to his feet and tells him he has a job to do. 

That job is another Boon, like himself but a Beta. Matt finds the guy knelt down and shirtless in front of the big, winged armchair Victor likes conducting business in, staring blankly forward like his spirit has been sucked out through a straw. There is a fresh bite mark on his ribs. 

Matt is not a good Omega, but an Omega he most definitely is. It’s easy to give into the instinct to comfort when a fellow wolf is that small and defeated-looking, especially since he’s been fighting every other instinct he has since he got to this God-forsaken pack.

“Hey,” he says, dropping to his knees in front of the guy. “Hey, come on. Come on, deep breaths, look at me now. You’re okay.” The reassurance sticks in Matt’s throat. 

The Beta has bruises splotching along his body like paint, and the claiming bite is messy. He’s obviously fought Victor as much as he could. That, plus his size, plus the snickers of the Beta’s hanging around the door, plus the fact that it’s _Matt_ who’s been sent in to care for him, all indicate that this guy is going to end up on the bottom rung of the pack. Everyone’s chew toy, with the exception of Matt, because no one’s lower than an Omega.

Matt swallows. He touches the guy’s shoulder, gently, and speaks again. “I can get you cleaned up. We’ll bandage the bite and, you know, stuff, and you can rest. It’s exhausting, I know. Trust me, I know. It takes a lot out of you. You’ll feel a little better once you sleep.” 

All Matt wants, suddenly, is for that blank look to leave the Beta’s eyes. Matt just wants some kind of response, anything to indicate that he’s not broken beyond what can be fixed.

“I’m Matt,” he says, reaching out with his other hand and cupping the Beta’s cheek, hoping the unspoken _‘I can take care of you’_ can be heard in his voice and the action. 

As his hand connects with skin, the Beta inhales sharply. His eyes focus suddenly and sharply and slightly panicked on Matt.

“I…I…” He stutters. He stares at Matt and seems to absorb what’s in front of him for the first time. Matt can imagine what he’s seeing- a skinny Omega in a too-big Halo Reach t-shirt and boxers, hair too long and beard scruffy. Matt squeezes his shoulder again, and he blinks.

“I’m Jeremy,” the Beta says finally, in a small, lost voice.

Jeremy is barrel-chested like a boxer. He’s short but strong looking, solid where Matt is scrawny, and speaks in a brass-sounding baritone. He lets himself be led to another room, and lets Matt clean his cuts and the bite with peroxide. When the neckline of the t-shirt Matt is wearing slips almost off his shoulder, stretched out from years of wear, and reveals the scar of Victor’s bite on his own skin, Jeremy whines in sympathy. 

Matt thinks, _we can protect each other._

And for the next three years, that’s what they do. 

(.)

Jack meets the taller of the two strays officially about a day and a half after Geoff gives his okay for them to crash in the guest room as long as they need. He doesn’t count coaxing an Omega in Appeasement out of a hiding spot as really meeting him. 

It happens when he and Ryan are having one of their frequent disagreements. Honestly, the two really are close friends, but they can’t help clashing, and clashing often. Part of it is simply personality differences- they’re both the sort to think that they’re always right, and that the way they see things is the best way, no exceptions; Jack’s a pacifist, Ryan is not. Ryan has an innate awkwardness in social situations and in meeting new people, Jack has an ease with both. 

But it’s also a Pack thing. Because Ryan is an Alpha and Jack is a Beta, but Jack is Geoff’s Second and technically higher in the pack order than Ryan is. It’s uncomfortable for the both of them. They never know where they stand with each other. 

They’re fighting over how to handle a new pack that’s expanding, in Ryan’s opinion, much too close to their territory for comfort. Jack doesn’t think it’s worth making the first move, because they haven’t done anything aggressive to them yet. Ryan thinks that they need to act immediately, before it’s too late. Jack doesn’t think they’ll be a ‘too late’ in the first place, considering that, from what they understand, that pack only expanded because one of the members got married and then got pregnant with triplets. 

But things are escalating, because that’s what things do when Jack and Ryan fight, and they’re getting up in each other’s faces and getting angry and that’s when Matt walks in.

The kid picks up the tension in the room immediately. He freezes, a prey animal caught in crosshairs, fight or flight triggered immediately. He stares at the two of them, meeting each of their eyes in rapid secession and then darting to every exit the room has. Jack can almost hear his hear beat spike.

He’s acting like one of them is going to hit him. Or pin him someplace hard and chew on his neck. Jack isn’t used to people looking at him like that. He never wants anyone to look at him like that again, truthfully. 

With what seems like herculean effort, Matt keeps his eyes on them. He doesn’t drop his gaze or show any signs of submission, just nods once at them and says, “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.” Then he turns on his heel and walks as fast as he can out of the room without running. 

Jack and Ryan watch him leave and then slowly turn to face each other. 

“I,” starts Ryan, looking honestly distressed and almost frightened, probably scared the Feral he used to be had leaked out without him knowing. “Did I do something?” 

“No, I don’t think so,” says Jack, watching the door that Matt had retreated through. “I don’t think it was anything either of us did.”

Later that night, Jack approaches Geoff and asks, “We’re keeping those two, right?” 

He knows before Geoff speaks that the answer is “yes.”

(.)

The letter from Dan comes in mid-morning on a Wednesday. 

Gavin does not leave his room for the rest of the day Wednesday. 

_I’m close now, I know it,_ the letter says. _It’s only dumb luck that I didn’t get them the last time. I’m more South than I’ve been in a while, can’t tell you exactly where, but I have a good lead. I’m hot on their tails, B, and once I get them I’ll be back. Give it another few months, I’ll-_

The same thing he’s been writing since he left, since he decided it isn’t safe for him to communicate through email or phone. 

As per usual, there’s no return address, so Gavin can’t write back and try to articulate, somehow, that he doesn’t need Dan to avenge their fallen Pack in this way. He can’t try to drive the idea through Dan’s thick, stubborn Beta skull that all he needs is Dan back, here and safe, not gallivanting around and trying to be a hero. 

The rest of their Pack is gone, slaughtered by the Hunters who still exist and kill in Europe, and they shouldn’t be separated. They should be together. At the very fucking least, they should be on the same continent. 

Gavin is not a crier. He doesn’t cry over sad things, or tragic things, or really happy things. He’s cried a grand total of once that he can remember, and that’s in a country house in England, hiding in a closet with Dan as their Pack is massacred outside. So, no, he doesn’t cry when he gets Dan’s infrequent letters. But he does…Retreat, a little bit. Into his own head. 

And he’s spent a good few hours in there this time, curled up in a ball under a blanket, the letter turning limp with sweat in his hands. He knows, on an intellectual level, that Dan is not here because of Dan, and maybe because of a Beta instinct gone horribly wrong (their old Alpha’s last shouted order to him had been _stay safe_ , which Dan had interpreted as _make sure they can never come after you ever again_ and he couldn’t bring himself to disobey). But his instincts, the damn Omega in him, whispers constantly that Dan isn’t here because he, Gavin, isn’t good enough to make him want to stay. And as much as he knows that’s not true, the thought and these kinds of letters are enough to drive him into a ball of insecurity for a while. 

The bed dips down next to him. He doesn’t need to look up to know it’s Geoff, and that fact is proven without a doubt as fingers drags easily across his scalp. Gavin sighs shakily and leans into the hand. 

“You good, buddy?” Geoff’s voice is all soothing Alpha, and Gavin needs that right now. He makes a non-committal shrug. Geoff plucks the paper from his hand and scans it while Gavin burrows farther into the blanket. Geoff sighs in nonverbal understanding. 

“He sounds like he’s okay, at least.” His fingers have taken up an easy rhythm through Gavin’s hair. “He sounds fine.”

“He’s not here, though.”

“I know, Gavvy.” 

Geoff knows, at this point, that there’s not much else to do for him when he’s like this, other than sit with him until Gavin can drag himself out of it. And that’s what an Alpha has to do, sometimes. Hold and pet and sooth, give something solid to lean on while things are terrible, until they aren’t. With each slow, easy movement of Geoff’s fingers, Gavin feels something inside of him loosen- the Omega retreating farther back and the human gaining more control of his emotions. 

Gavin lets out a small sigh of contentment. Geoff’s presence assures him that his place in this pack is secure, whether Dan is here or not. 

This is one of the best things about being a wolf. This easy, soothing touch between pack that managed to banish doubts like nothing else in the universe could. When it had just been him and Dan, Dan dragging him all around who-knows-where, half-mad with grief and determined to follow the last orders he received, this has been the thing Gavin couldn’t have. Betas are great; some of Gavin’s favorite people in the word are Betas. He will happily cuddle up and spend days with Michel or Jack or Kdin or Dan, but when his wolf decides he’s a burden, only Geoff or Ryan can really help him.

If he didn’t have this, he isn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t be mad right now, or if he would be himself, or if he would be functional, or horribly traumatized, like. 

Like.

Like the two wolves who are in their guest room right now, who flinch whenever someone gets too close. 

He remembers the night Geoff, Jack and Michael dragged the two inside, when Geoff had pulled him aside and asked him to go into the room ahead of him in hopes it would put them at ease. Matt had already been tucked tightly into the bed and had been either unconscious or sleeping, but not quite still- he flinched and breathed heavily from the confines of the blanket. The Beta, Jeremy, had been sitting on the chair beside the bed, head in hands, the dark circles carved so deeply under his eyes they almost matched his bruises. 

When Gavin walked in, the Beta had looked up immediately and sharply. And Gavin’s used to being stared at. Visiting packs sometimes look at him or Ray, when he’s around, like they’re low-hanging fruit. This Beta wasn’t looking at him like that. He scanned Gavin with the intention of an MRI, or a lie detector. Searching for inconsistencies, looking for hurts. Like, as soon as he identified ‘Omega,’ he expected to see injuries like the ones on his friend. Like he wanted to push Gavin behind him and bar the door. 

Gavin knows what a Beta deprived of Pack looks like. He knows what being an Omega in the same situation feels like as well. These two looked worse. 

Now, Gavin turns his head more firmly into Geoff’s fingers. His mind is significantly clearer now. He pulls himself into a sitting position and throws his legs over Geoff’s legs, smiling. 

“You feeling better?” Geoff asks. 

Gavin hums the affirmative. 

(.)

From what Jeremy can gather, Geoff’s pack has six people who live in the Pack house full time (Jack, Ryan, Michael, Lindsay, Gavin, and Geoff himself), and a few others on top of that who are in the pack but living other places right now (Ray, who fell in love with a human girl and lives with her in a different part of the city; Kdin, who’s in a university the handful of miles away and working on his second degree in Multi-Media Communications to compliment one in business; and Caleb, who is apparently a professional soccer player). That makes the pack smaller than his Mom’s, and much smaller than Victor’s. Jeremy doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not. 

He’s having a hard time telling if anything is a good thing or not, these days.

Even after Matt can get out of bed, the two of them spend almost all their time in the guest room at first. They make themselves as the smallest targets they can out of pure habit. It’s a fucked up habit, Jeremy acknowledges that, but in a situation as unknown as this, it’s not one he’s inclined to break. 

Then the Omega, Gavin, starts coming to visit them a few times a day. At first he makes up excuses as to why he’s there by saying that he’s checking on how Matt’s feeling or bringing them water, but the pretense soon drops. He walks in and sits on the bed and babbles to them about inane bullshit. And Jeremy has no idea what to do with that.  
Gavin doesn’t seem offended by their lack of response. For a few days, he’s completely content to talk at them, while Matt stares at him like he’s a puzzle that needs immediate solving, and Jeremy jumps whenever he moves too quickly. Today isn’t any different, at first. 

“…It would be so cool, like, it’s be a future like Star Wars and-“

Matt interjects quietly, unable to help himself. “Star Wars didn’t take place in the future.”

Gavin stopped, quizzical expression on his face. “What?”

“Star Wars didn’t take place in the future. It takes place in the past.” 

“What?” Gavin looks genuinely shocked. “No it doesn’t, that is obviously not the past.” 

“Not Earth’s past.”

“Are you telling me that Star Wars takes place in the past, in another place than here?”

Matt is staring at the other Omega like he just started speaking in tongues. “Yes, of course it does, did you really not know that?” 

“They don’t say that!”

“ _A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away!_ The first line! How can you not-“ and then Matt’s off, waving his hands wildly, Gavin arguing right back. That’s probably the start of it.

They’re a hard group to distrust. Jack has an air of genuineness to him and looks too much like Santa’s cool younger cousin to really be intimidating. Ryan dresses in suburban-dad chic and mispronounces words when he talks too fast. Geoff is the most laid-back Alpha Jeremy has ever seen. The scariest of all of them is probably Michael, and only because he tries to project that feeling to outsiders. It’s hard to keep believing that kind of thing when you’ve seen the person melt into a puddle with their head in their wife’s lap. 

And they’re letting them stay. As weeks turn into a month turn into two, they continue to let the two of them stay. 

It’s evening, and him and Matt are snapped out of yet another hushed discussion of ‘what the fuck do we do next’ by a knock on the door. Lindsay pokes her head in and grins. 

“Hey, we’re sitting down in a second. You eating with us tonight? Geoff cooked.”

Lindsay had clicked with them right away. She’s the one who started getting them out of the guest room, with promises of the Legend of Zelda and Jurassic Park marathons. Recently, they’ve started eating meals with the pack semi-regularly. It’s weirdly domestic.

Jeremy has to forcibly remind himself that this isn’t their pack. As much as he wishes it were, it’s not. 

He exchanges a glance with Matt. Matt shrugs. 

“Sure,” Jeremy says. “We’ll be right there.” 

The Ramsey kitchen is warm and crowded and filled with the noise of chatter. The whole pack is already gathering around the table when Jeremy and Matt slip inside. Geoff greets them with a huge grin. 

“Hey, there you are. We were afraid you two had lost the door again.” 

More like they were taking a day to plan, but Jeremy doesn’t say that. “Yeah,” he laughs and nudges Matt. “We found it again, though.”

“Lindsay showed us the way,” Matt chimes in. 

Already seated, Lindsay raises one fist into the air. “Fuck yeah.” 

Whatever Geoff’s cooking smells incredible, and Jeremy tells him so as they sit down. 

“Thanks, buddy,” Geoff says warmly, and Jeremy tries vainly to crush down the rush of warmth in his chest as his wolf basks in even that small praise. _Get your act together Dooley, Jesus Christ._

“Someone give me a hand, you lazy assholes,” Geoff calls over his shoulder. Matt crosses the kitchen to help, and Geoff hands him a casserole dish. Jack bumps shoulders with Jeremy, and Jeremy sits down. 

Jack takes the seat to his right, across from Ryan, and Jeremy is instantly pulled into a conversation about a rumor that a rogue Alpha has been spotted a few cities over. Ryan seems very intense about the whole thing. 

The crash startles everyone, but Jeremy just about jumps out of his skin. He leaps to his feet so fast the chair falls down behind him, pivots on his toe to face the origin of the noise. His heart stops. 

Matt has dropped the casserole dish. His eyes glaze over in a way Jeremy is only too familiar with. And Jeremy wants to take a step forward, yank him out of the room, hide him from sight, but he finds he can’t move. 

Victor won’t allow him to. 

Then there is a lot of noise. Matt drops to his knees, already halfway to Appeasement, and Jack rises to his feet quickly, half-shouting and herding everyone out of the kitchen.  
_We ruined dinner,_ Jeremy thinks absently, still unfocused and staring at Matt’s kneeling form. _We’ll be in so much trouble, Victor will-_  
And then the thought Victor isn’t here hits him like a freight train. Victor isn’t here, Victor is miles away, his best friend is on his knees and panicking, and Jeremy cannot make himself walk forward to help. 

He’s never really considered himself broken until that moment. 

He barely registers Ryan, of all people, dropping to the ground to help Matt before he’s turning and fleeing the room. 

(.)

The guy’s name is Kevin, and he’s a Beta in Victor’s pack, just like Jeremy. Higher up in the pecking order than Jeremy, of course, but not by too much. Not a bad kid, really, just the kind of Beta who was never taught that their designation doesn’t mean _mindless follower._

They pass each other in the hallway of Victor’s current compound, and Kevin’s hand shoots out, and grabs Jeremy’s upper arm to halt him. 

Jeremy freezes. “Wha-“ he starts, but Kevin shakes his head sharply. He won’t meet Jeremy’s eyes. 

“Listen,” he hisses in the direction of his feet. “Listen, okay?”

Jeremy slowly nods. 

“That other guy. Your friend, the Omega. Matt.”

“Yeah?” Jeremy looks at him wearily. “What about him?” 

Kevin sinks his teeth into his lip. “Just. Get to Victor’s rooms. The one he uses for business. Get there right now, alright?”

The breath sticks in Jeremy’s throat. “What’s going on?”

“Just get there, okay man? Go right now and get there.” Kevin finally makes eye contact, and his eyes are deadly serious. Jeremy can do nothing but nod. 

“Okay. I’ll go right now, I- I’m going.” He swallows. “Thank you,” he adds as sincerely as he can muster from under the panic. 

Kevin just nods and lets go of his arm. 

Jeremy flies across the compound, moving faster than he ever has outside a shift. He stumbles to the door to Victor’s room and, for once not hesitating out of fear, opens it and  
steps inside. And just. Freezes. 

Victor has Matt pinned, pulled flush against him, Matt’s back to his front. He has his forearm barred over Matt’s thin chest, immobilizing him. As Jeremy watches, he kicks Matt’s knees out and he goes down, eyes sharp with fear and mouth twisted with forced stoicism as he fights his Omega who begs him to just submit to it. 

Victor fists his hand in Matt’s too-long hair, yanks his head to the side to bare his neck. Matt’s breath hitches. That’s when Jeremy fully registers what’s dangling from Victor’s fingers. 

It’s a shock collar. 

It has a lock on the side, and it’ll be loose enough on a human neck but restrain painfully on the neck of a wolf, even one as scrawny as Matt is. It will cut into the skin. The electrodes will make indents in him, causing pain even when they’re not activated. 

Matt has his eyes squeezed shut, and Victor is saying something about not liking people touching his things, and he is going to put that collar on Matt (and you _don’t do that,_ you don’t fuck with an Omega’s neck unless you are close and trusted to them or there is something incredibly dire going on), and Jeremy just. Loses it. 

He loses it. 

He goes Feral, maybe, or Terror Mad. He barely remembers it later, barely remembers anything except shifting painfully and ripping everything in front of him. 

But he gets Matt out, somehow. Matt, his eyes unfocused, up to his ears in Appeasement, stands on unsteady legs while Jeremy flies around their room and shoves as much as he can into two duffle bags. Within 15 minutes, they’re fleeing the compound. 

No one comes after them. Jeremy knows Victor’s not dead- he can still feel the Alpha sitting heavy on his skin, and his mind. In the bite on his ribs. But no one comes after them. 

He buys two bus tickets. Matt doesn’t speak the entire ride. 

Jeremy always thought freedom would feel more triumphant than this. 

(.)

Geoff only hesitates long enough to see Ryan go to help Matt before taking off after Jeremy. 

He knows the way a stressed, scared Beta thinks, and because of that it doesn’t take him long to find Jeremy, curled into the gap between a bookshelf and the entertainment center. His knees are pulled to his chest. 

Geoff lowers himself against the wall to sit next to him. He can feel the shudders wrenching through the younger man, but Jeremy doesn’t react to his presents. There’s a long moment of silence between them

“You know I’m not mad,” Geoff says softly, “right?” 

Jeremy doesn’t answer. 

“It was a mistake. It’s not that big a deal, buddy. I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole. You know that?”

Slowly, Jeremy inhales. “Yeah. I know.”

“Good. That’s good.” 

Another beat of silence passes. Jeremy is still shaking when he speaks again. 

“I. I couldn’t- I couldn’t-“ He can’t make himself finish the sentence. “I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t make myself move, because _he_ wouldn’t have let me.” 

“Your old Alpha?” Geoff softly confirms. 

Jeremy nods. “Every time I’d try to help I’d make it worse. It was so fucked up. Matt shouldn’t react like that.” He heart beat spiked suddenly, and the backs of his eyes burned. “It’s just fucking reflex at this point, for both of us. And I should have done more, I should have gotten us out sooner. We said we’d protect each other, the first day we met. What does it say about me, if I couldn’t even go to help him when we’re not actually in real danger?” His voice breaks and he scrubs at his eyes. 

Geoff just looks at him, calm and steady. 

“We have nowhere to go now. I got us out, I should have had a plan, but I suck at that kind of thinking ahead thing. And Matt keeps tying to tell me that I can stop trying to act like an Alpha, but one of us has to, right? It’s- At least I know how a good Alpha acts, Matt went from a shitty pack to a nightmare pack, but I just don’t know what-“ Jeremy stops and buries his head in his hands. And it hurts Geoff to look at him. 

Slowly, praying he won’t startle the Beta, Geoff wraps an arm around his shoulders and pulls his curled-up form into his side. 

“It’s okay, Lil’J. Look, it’s okay. It’s over now.” He murmurs it into the side of Jeremy’s head, soft and soothing. “You did good. You did so well, you did everything you could and it was more than enough. You’re so good, Jeremy.” 

And with those last words, Jeremy goes boneless. He lets himself sob once, violently, as if expelling something poison from deep inside himself. Geoff pulls him closer. 

“Stay with us, Jeremy. Both of you stay. That’s what we were going to talk about at dinner. We were going to offer you a place here, if you want it.”

In his head, Jeremy hears Matt’s voice, the words ‘You know I trust you.’

With his head still tucked against Geoff’s shoulder, Jeremy nods yes. 

(.)

The moon is high and full and nourishing. Under it, Geoff’s pack sits in wolf-skin in a rough circle around their Alpha and two others. 

Matt’s wolf is tawny and lean. Jeremy’s is darker. Both are twitchier than everyone else, but have all their attention focused on Geoff. 

Matt watches as the Alpha pounces, knocks Jeremy down playfully. He pins him, licks at Jeremy’s ears a few times, before he slowly noses down to his ribs, where Victor’s Claiming bite is still scarred. Geoff lines his teeth up with the mark perfectly and then, carefully, he bites down. 

Jeremy goes limp. Geoff pulls away and licks at his muzzle twice. Then he turns to Matt.

Matt bares his throat. Everything in him is screaming to run, because this is an Alpha and Alphas means pain, always. The animal in him hates the human, in that moment. 

But then Geoff’s fangs sink into him and, after a sing of almost-hurt, suddenly, Matt can breathe. 

And, God. God, how long had there been a band around his chest, stopping him from inhaling all the way? How long had there been a slight pain behind his eyes and a barely-there muscle ache? It feels like he’s had a flu for almost four years, and is just now being cured of it. 

Geoff licks his snout as wall steps back, and the world around Matt is clear and sharp in a way it hasn’t been in ages. He swings around to Jeremy, who is grinning a doggy smile at him. The Beta knocks into him, joyous. And that’s a look Matt’s never seen on his best friend. Scared, yes. Content, maybe. Joyous? Not until this moment. 

Behind them, Geoff howls, and around them the pack runs. Matt bounds after them, following Jeremy’s overjoyed pants and snuffles and sent. And Matt thinks, _oh._

This is what Jeremy meant. This is what a really good Alpha, a really good pack, feels like.

Awesome.

**Author's Note:**

> 1- Matt was going to go to school to be an architect because I have a friend who's going to school for the same thing, and a summer project he had to do involved building a modern house in minecraft.  
> 2- Gavin and Jeremy are awesome bros and I think it's the best thing ever.  
> 3- Caleb being a professional soccer player happened because a big inspiration for this series was a werewolf au written in the hockey rpf fandom. So, nod to the sports fic writers there.  
> 4- In my head, archaically, Alpha=leader, Beta=solider, and Omega=diplomat. 
> 
> Thanks again for all your patience with this thing. There will probably be a few more drabbles and such in this verse if time allows and inspiration strikes. Thank you all so much for your support.


End file.
